- The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin."





- The Board refused to require that "students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others."

ugh! that is beyond fucked up :-(



it's so time for you to move to philly

HOW CAN THEY SAY NO TO THIS FACE

Decisions by the board – made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others – can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.



good thing they have qualified individuals like lawyers and dentists deciding what kids should learn.

If you leave, then the crazy conservatives win.

:( the far-right are far-wrong.

JOHN CALVIN LOOKS LIKE SQUIDWARD

You better make room for me, Brian, because I am walking there starting right now.



Living in Austin makes me forget about all the crushing stupidity that has engorged this state, but then sometimes I'll see stuff like this and it just does not register in my brain.

How? How are people this dense?

It's time to fuck shit up.

robotwaste on Mar 14 '10 at 1:38pm

If you leave, then the crazy conservatives win.



Unfortunately, most of the time it's not even worth fighting them. The power they wield in this state is so overwhelming.

are you kidding? i've had room for you since last september :-)



everything's bigger in texas, including stupidity, it seems :-(

– To avoid exposing students to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else,” the Board struck the curriculum’s reference to “sex and gender as social constructs.”



whaaat?!

i'm so sorry, this sounds terrible :(

i didn't think the texans were so keen on the french.

Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.

Wow, John Calvin is an icon of the religious right? LOL



Someone at Huffington needs to do a little research.

if they're gonna teach calvin, they better teach hobbes, too

The worst part about this article is thinking about how it's going to affect the educators here who actually give a shit about their careers. As it is, the teachers here are so unappreciated, it's criminal. When you force parameters like this on them, what kind of creative license do they have?

It's sickening.

This stuff makes me mad. Close-minded religious people get me so enraged. It reminds me of that lesbian in Mississippi who can't go to prom. It just bothers me so much, the lengths conservatives would go to keep their ideals in power.



brb I have to get ready for church.

11:46 – These board members clearly haven’t got a clue how to craft a curriculum document that’s streamlined, coherent and focused. They are far more interested in seeding the standards with whatever ideological pet causes they have. Pity the students and teachers of Texas for the foolishness they must endure.





http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/11/blogging-the-social-studies-debate-iv/

I'm trying to find the story covered somewhere else. Having no luck.

Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic,"



I mean, shit, what good is stuff like this supposed to do? They're taking a standard for the whole country and twisting it for no good reason.

this makes me very sad.

Is the education system or Christian influence this retarded in Canada, Kelsi?

tracerbullet on Mar 14 '10 at 1:37pm

it's so time for you to move to philly



ya but here in PA we have some pretty nonsensical beer laws

sixpacktogo

second try

guess im retarded

ofthecoast on Mar 14 '10 at 1:48pm

this makes me very sad.



Me too. :(

As someone who's potentially interested in becoming an educator, I really feel like I just can't do that in this state.

Legalized ignorance. Awesome.

eh, i don't drink, so that doesn't bother me :-p

?

I'm sorry, guys. I just get so frustrated when I see things like this.

Why is trying to make progress so futile in this state? Year after year it just feels like we keep moving backwards. I want to punch the people responsible for stuff like this, but I think that's too many people, and I'd end up hurting my fist.

i went to a catholic school (in canada) and they were more open minded about sciences than some public schools in the states -_-

pretty sad.

this is so frustrating... as a social studies teacher everything i do get politicized... i was pushed out of my last job in part because of my leftist views... its nearly impossible to have an open frank discussion in some parts of the country including the one i call home...

mike bautista on Mar 14 '10 at 1:49pm



Is the education system or Christian influence this retarded in Canada, Kelsi?



Nope. And I live in the Texas of Canada!

ginetteginette on Mar 14 '10 at 1:56pm

i went to a catholic school (in canada) and they were more open minded about sciences than some public schools in the states -_-

pretty sad.



Oh totally. I teach in a Catholic school right now, and went to one when I was growing up, and I feel the same..



I think generally Canadian education is a little bit more open minded...

The education system over here isn't doing too well, here. Though it's more a mix of terrible economy and corruption of the suits at the top. I honestly have no idea how kids will pay for college in the near future.

american college is just unbelievably expensive.

This extends to so many other fields of education here, unfortunately. Perhaps one of the most upsetting ones to me is how it is required by law to handle sex education. By law, educators are only allowed to promote abstinence and so safe sex practices are thrown in the backseat and not taught at all.



Do you know what happens, then?

Girls get knocked up. Texas has some alarming teen pregnancy rates, and I think some of that could be helped if kids were taught about safe sex as opposed to just "Don't have sex until you're married otherwise you will end up with all kinds of horrible diseases."



Just an example of one of the many things that really upsets me.

I misread the title of this blog as, "I am engaged" and came into say congratulations!



Anyway, sorry to hear about your backwards state.

Thing is, most parents won't teach their kids about sex ed or anything else much either. Double whammy.

This kind of ignorance happens all over the country on some scale, though it does seem to be more concentrated in certain areas.



I find it incredibly disheartening that we are the most intelligent animal, probably the only to be truly conscious of our own consciousness, and we squander are gifts by focusing on intolerance, greed and prejudice. We us petty difference to drive wedges between each other so that we never really get to be a pack or herd. Just a bunch of people by themselves, out for themselves, not willing to accept other and their differences. As if we know the right way to live.



Not only a sad day for Texas, but a sad day for all humans.

safe sex practices are thrown in the backseat



That's an interesting way to put it.

andyg on Mar 14 '10 at 2:11pm

I misread the title of this blog as, "I am engaged" and came into say congratulations!



Anyway, sorry to hear about your backwards state.



Hah! Well thanks for the condolences anyway. :P



SuperRyan on Mar 14 '10 at 2:13pm

Thing is, most parents won't teach their kids about sex ed or anything else much either. Double whammy.



This is largely true. Speaking from experience, the most I have learned about sex ed has taken place in the past couple years, which is remarkably bad. My parents never took it up with me probably because they didn't want me to even consider sex, and the education board feels the same way about it, which is why they choose to avoid a very important part of it.



Orbanya on Mar 14 '10 at 2:13pm



You summed things up quite nicely, sir.

yeah, I suppose technically in the Catholic school system here we're not supposed to teach about contraception, but it gets taught anyway, in a more roundabout way...



for example, at the school i did my practicum in, they had nurses come in to teach sex ed to the kids, and when the nurses (who have no obligation to teach "Catholic" sex ed) get to the part about birth control and safe sex, the teachers just let them talk about it, and then afterward jump in with a little blurb on how yes, those are means of birth control but that really abstinence is truly the best form of birth control or something to that effect.



and I think I learned more about contraception through YM Magazine, TV, and my parents than I did at school, and I really feel that sex ed is one of those things that should not be the responsibility (at least not sole responsibility) of schools and teachers to teach. I think that's a parental responsibility big time. There are a lot of expectations on teachers to give all these students everything they need in life to be successful individuals when really their schooling only makes up a part (albeit a huge part) of how they turn out. Parents should also still need to be accountable for the education of their child. They need to be aware of what can/can't and is/isn't being taught to their child and school and do their best to fill those gaps.

when are you gonna move?

Oh, I definitely agree with you, Kelsi, that parents need to be there to take up the reigns sometimes, especially with serious life experiences like sex. It's just that I wish that contraceptive methods didn't have to be avoided when schools teach sex ed. That just isn't fair. Kids should at least be taught that that IS an option.



My sex ed experience was basically composed of rounding up all the 8th graders in the cafeteria and having a slideshow shown to us that literally only showed us genitals that had been mutilated by different STDs. We were taught that this was the result of sex, and therefore sex was bad.

i'm fired up.